Three Stars wrote:We lost to the Flyers because they won more games and scored more goals than us.

The simple answer is: the Flyers built their team to beat the Penguins, and did so successfully. They've completely dominated the match-up over the past two seasons. The onus is on Shero, Bylsma, and the Penguins to do something about it.

I still don't understand this theory. How do you build a team to beat one team? What specifically did they do to build a team to beat us but not New Jersey? Also, what is the point in beating just one team and losing to others? Isn't the goal to build a winning team, not a team that will beat one specific team? What specifically should RS do to build a team to beat the Flyers? To me, you can either compete with the good teams in the NHL, or you can't.

offsides wrote:I still don't understand this theory. How do you build a team to beat one team? What specifically did they do to build a team to beat us but not New Jersey? Also, what is the point in beating just one team and losing to others? Isn't the goal to build a winning team, not a team that will beat one specific team? What specifically should RS do to build a team to beat the Flyers? To me, you can either compete with the good teams in the NHL, or you can't.

They clog the middle and use their big D to keep us to the outside. They physically attack our small and weak defensemen. It's a formula that we haven't been able to beat on a consistent basis. They're also suddenly fast at forward. We had problems against two types of teams last year. Quick and tenacious, like the Islanders, or big and physical, like the Flyers.

Basically, our defense is or was bad. I'm talking about the type of players we have in our back end. Which is why it worries me that it will still be the same defense. I would replace 2 guys (keeping Tanger and Orpik). That's not considering any rookie in the lineup, because I'm surely hoping for at least one this year.

I'm not sure I buy the thinking that the Flyers were an especially bad match-up for the Pens last year. They were a bad match-up insofar as the Pens tend to lose their collective cool when they play them, take stupid penalties, and forget their defensive responsibilities. However, given the way the Pens were playing at the end of the regular season (up-tempo, high-scoring, defense-free pond hockey), I thought the Flyers were the best possible match-up, since the Flyers play similarly, and I thought the Pens might be able to outscore them in a high-octane series. Remember the Pens lost two to the Isles down the stretch. Were the Isles also constructed to beat the Pens? I think the Pens would have done worse against pretty much any other team in the playoffs, all of whom were capable of tight-checking, defensive games.

largegarlic wrote:I'm not sure I buy the thinking that the Flyers were an especially bad match-up for the Pens last year. They were a bad match-up insofar as the Pens tend to lose their collective cool when they play them, take stupid penalties, and forget their defensive responsibilities. However, given the way the Pens were playing at the end of the regular season (up-tempo, high-scoring, defense-free pond hockey), I thought the Flyers were the best possible match-up, since the Flyers play similarly, and I thought the Pens might be able to outscore them in a high-octane series. Remember the Pens lost two to the Isles down the stretch. Were the Isles also constructed to beat the Pens? I think the Pens would have done worse against pretty much any other team in the playoffs, all of whom were capable of tight-checking, defensive games.

I think your spot on. The Pens went run and gun at a certain point and completely said screw it to defensive hockey. They were scoring 4 or 5 goals every other game and it worked out real good for awhile, but even those games had plenty of odd man rushes etc. against and eventually the higher skilled teams such as the Flyers started scoring on those..

The defensive personnel is still the same garbage from last year, except worse since ZM was dumped for pucks, but playing a defensive mindset and a better system would do wonders for this team.